This blog site is dedicated to the real people that love New York City, the historic stunning NYC and communities being crushed under this tsunami of community crushing development...welcome to the "new" hideous New York built on "old" New York's infrastructure. The new hideous sky piercing luxury condos, mirrored hotels and mega dorms reflect a history destroyed and communities no longer welcome.

About Suzannah Troy, suebe1art@aol.com

Passionate letters published in The Financial Times re: Lucien Freud, my art and women's issues, The Wall St. Journal"Betrayal at Ground Zero", The Chief, The New York Times (9),Crains "NYU's Logo should be a dorm with a dollar", The New York Sun, The New York Post, The New York Daily News, Metro, AMNY, The Village Voice "Carbon Copy" letter of the week, Newsday, Jerusalem Post, my blog mentioned New York Mag Intelligencer neighborhood watch. Got speed bumps for Anna Silver School & doors for women's bathroom Tompkins. Donated my white blood cells twice to help a little girl fight Non-Hodgkins & man w/Lymphoma. Two hour process & you can only do it 12 x in your life. Too worn out to donate now. Way back Liz Smith mentioned me & my favorite zen quote "Live each moment as if your hair is on fire." which means live in the moment like it is your last aka live life passionately!
I am really proud to say I have run 2 New York City Marathons!!! Also to have done volunteer work with pre-school handicap children at Rusk. NYTimes My YouTube work 1) Giuseppi Logan’s Second Chance 2)Mysterious Mr. Rechnitz

Monday, March 31, 2008

When he could have left with his family he chose to stay in Cambodia to work with The NY Times reporter Schanberg at great risk and unimaginable suffering to make sure the world new about the genocide of the Cambodian people. There is no way to read this article with out crying. He said, "I am a one person crusade."He suffered brutal beatings, harsh work in labor camps with 1 tablespoon of rice a day which is slavery. There was even a rumor he had been fed to alligators which was not true but was how his brother died.

This was in today's The New York Times obit section with a video link www.nytimes.com/obits

On the front page are striking photos and another heartbreaking report "Tracking a Marine Lost at Home"...again the article evokes tears. Also on the news the heart wrenching news for a family their hope their son is live is smashed...he was executed so on the tv I see a Marine lost at war.

Sad...

I am so haunted by this and I have yet to bring my self to read every sentence but here is the article and I wish they had the photos from the front page because they were a striking collage.

Tracking a Marine Lost at Home - New York TimesTracking a Marine Lost at Home. Chip Litherland for The New York Times .... Granted, he died doing what he loved. But I was the one that led him to it.” ...www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/us/31war.html?ex=1364616000& en=c73d31a4371d2dc4&ei=5090&partner=rs... - Similar pages

Go to the link above to see a photo of Hef named after Hugh Hefner and you can see he is beautiful. The good news is that he and one of his girlfriends found a home. (No, didn't get to make the move with all his girlfriends but he says Barbara is the cat's meow!) So happy to report good news. 212-979-2532235 9th Ave New York, NY 10001www.1800whiskers.com

To CPC Members and Others Interested: 3/30/08COME TO DEMONSTRATION TOMORROW AT THE COLUMBIA GATES (116th Street and Broadway), MONDAY, 3/31, 4:30PM – 6:15PM. Columbia told the 26th Precinct to deny us a permit to use a sound device so come on out and help us shout out our opposition. In the past, Columbia has not opposed a sound permit at that time of day, but as community opposition mounts to the rezoning plans across 125 th Street that will have far reaching impact right into Washington Heights, Columbia, and the elected officials who are doing such a great job defending displacement policies, want to silence critics. So come on out for an hour or two and criticize, agitate and organize. It’s called democracy – what the real pulse of Harlem is all about.

(1) Come to the Coalition to Preserve Community demonstration at the gates of Columbia on Monday, March 31, 4:30PM and join the picket line. This fight has just begun. See flyer below and contact numbers are on the flyer below and call 212 666-6426 if you can help distribute flyers today or tonight.

(2) Below are two articles about last Thursday’s press conference announcing the lawsuit challenging environmental aspects of Columbia’s bathtub foundation. You can download a copy of the petition at www.tuckitaway.com(3) Here is a note that the Coalition to Save Harlem sent out about the hearing next Tuesday, April 1 at City Hall. We urge everyone to come out and testify:

4/1/08 PUBLIC HEARING -- 125TH STREET REZONIING HEARING AT CITY COUNCIL

The Coalition to Save Harlem urges the public to attend the New York City Council public hearing on the City’s plan to rezone 125th Street in Harlem. This plan ushers in massive, luxury development on 125th Street, putting long-time residents and businesses at risk of displacement! This hearing will be held Tuesday, April the 1st, at City Hall beginning at 9:30 AM. Please arrive early. This is your last opportunity to be heard as we call for fair and just development on 125th Street. We, the Coalition to Save Harlem, are calling upon the NYC Council to vote against this proposal!

Your voice WILL make a difference! - Coalition To Save Harlem.

----------------------------------------------------------COALITION TO PRESERVE COMMUNITY -United for an Open and Strong CommunityPOST OFFICE BOX 50 - Manhattanville Station365 West 125th StreetNEW York City, New York 10027---------------------------------------------------------Coalition to Preserve CommunityPROTEST AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY:JOIN THE PICKET LINE AT THE CU GATES, 116THST. & BROADWAY, MONDAY,MARCH 31,2008 4:30PM – 6:15 PM.

We will not be moved! Harlem residents will defeat Columbia's eviction plan!

A lawsuit was filed on Wednesday to fight the biohazard labs and environmental dangers posed by the Columbia eviction/expansion plan. One of the property owners (Tuck-it-away) who is facing eviction by eminent domain worked with the Coalition to Preserve Community and others and filed a suit to protect Harlem & the upper Westside from biohazard dangers and other negative environmental impacts. Join us Monday & demand Columbia give us answers.

WE WILL FIGHT FOR OUR HOMES & BE HERE LONG AFTER COLUMBIA'S EXPANSION PLAN IS DEFEATED!

Columbia's proposal will demolish 17 acres of our community, eliminate 800 quality jobs, force over 400 long-time residents to relocate, and evict longtime property owners and businesses by abusing eminent domain. Columbia predicts that 5,000 people in the surrounding community could be pushed out of their homes just in the period while the project is being built. GET UP, STAND UP, AND PICKET.

COME OUT. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.CONTACT US: Call (212) 666-6426, 646-812-5188, or (212) 234-3002 (se habla espanol) or go towww.stopcolumbia.org and sign up to be on our contact list. ESPANOL – OTRO

After formally bringing a lawsuit against Columbia and the city on Thursday, Tuck-It-Away owner Nick Sprayregen and his lawyers held a press conference at his storage facility to officially announce the legal action. Though he previously focused on rallying against the potential use of eminent domain in Manhattanville, Sprayregen is now also setting his sights on the environmental implications of the University’s planned underground development.“Tuck-It-Away vs. the City of New York” calls on the New York State Supreme Court to take a “hard look” at Columbia’s two-million-square-foot Manhattanville development that would extend seven stories below the street. As it stands now, the University’s design poses significant environmental risks that the city has not properly considered, according to lawyer and public advocate candidate Norman Siegel.“Without proper review, a disaster may someday occur,” Sprayregen said. “We are not challenging the overall rezoning.”The underground plan, known as the “bathtub,” would stretch from 125th Street to 133rd Street, Broadway to 12th Avenue, and would house campus laboratories, a swimming and diving center, business school programs, a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus depot, and storage facilities.Sprayregen, Siegel, and attorney Steve Silverberg say that the placement of the “bathtub” on a flood plane and earthquake fault line could pose daunting environmental concerns, including flooding.The recent focus on the environmental implications of the Manhattanville expansion is a marked departure from Sprayregen’s usual focus on eminent domain. Siegel said that the statute of limitations was about to run out following a Nov. 26 meeting, where the City Planning Commission approved the findings regarding the environmental implications of the bathtub. The four-month opportunity to appeal ran out yesterday, the day they filed their lawsuit.“My perspective being that environmental laws are put in place to protect the safety and well-being of the community ... I concluded over the weekend that the work up to this point doesn’t comport with the ‘hard look’ requirement,” Siegel said.Sprayregen and Siegel have also been working with Community Board 9 consultant and director of the Pratt Institute Ron Schiffman and senior researcher Klaus Jacob to study the implications of building the bathtub.“Our recommendation was that CU should hire an outside risk assessment firm to study the [long term] risks associated with flooding in the face of rising sea level,” Jacob said.Jacob said that building the bathtub on a seismic fault may mean that water pressure from the Hudson River could proliferate faults on the bottom of the basement, which would be expensive to fix.Siegel also raised concerns about the engineering mechanisms given by Columbia officials to stave off environmental damage to the buildings. According to Siegel, the mechanisms were too vague to provide sufficient assurance that the facilities would withstand future natural disasters without endangering surrounding areas, yet effective mechanisms are still in reach.“They essentially said, ‘an engineering solution exists. We will find it and we will provide it at a later date,’” said Silverberg, who is also representing Sprayregen in the case.The plaintiffs also named CB9 in its lawsuit, though Siegel emphasized that they were seeking no relief from the board, and that CB9 was named as a respondent. He stressed that CB9 has been supportive of a thorough and critical review of the Manhattanville plan.“Now they have an opportunity to speak consistently,” Siegel said.Betsy Morais and Joy Resmovits contributed reporting this article.alix.pianin@columbiaspectator.com

The largest landowner threatened by Columbia's Manhattanville expansion has filed a suit against the school and city, alleging that the environmental review process for the expansion was insufficient. The process may have even ignored the risk for potential biohazard threats to the West Harlem community, the plaintiff's lawyer said.

"I think it's selfish for Columbia, it shows a level of uncaring for the people of West Harlem" said Nick Sprayregen, the owner of Tuck-It-Away Storage, the lead petitioner in the suit, which was filed Wednesday afternoon.

At issue is the construction of a massive underground "bathtub" structure that would extend about seven stories below ground throughout the development, a planned expansion that would include a research facility that the university calls a "biosafety" center, while the plaintiff calls it a "biohazard" center . According to the plaintiffs, the placement of such a structure on a geological fault in a flood zone poses a risk to the surrounding community. But according to Columbia, the research facilities will be built above grade and pose no risk.

"The rim of the bathtub is barely above the Hudson river, we believe it poses a risk of catastrophic failure" said Norman Siegel, Sprayregen's lawyer. He cited global warming and its connected risks as an issue of serious concern.

There exists a likelihood of a storm surge that would come over the bulkhead and flood the bathtub" and "hazardous materials from these facilities could be washed out into the West Harlem community" he said.

The suit challenges whether the City Planning Commission took the required "hard look" at environmental hazards for the site. The suit claims that the planning commission "provided that the engineering issues raised during the environmental review process would be resolved at some later unspecified date."

However, "Neither the engineering consultants - nor Columbia University consultants outline in any detail what those solutions are, what the impact of carrying out those approaches might be" the suit claims in a quote from Jordi Reyes-Montblanc, the chairman of Community Board 9.

Columbia declined to comment on the pending litigation, but said in a statement: "We are confident that the extended public land use and environmental review processes were rigorous and comprehensive. They underscored that thriving universities are essential for New York City to remain a leader in attracting the talent that pursues new knowledge and creating the good, middle-income jobs for people who seek to improve their lives here."

A Columbia spokeswoman clarified the nature of the research facility, taking issue with the plaintiff's use of "biohazard. " "There are no plans to put biosafety facilities below grade," said the spokeswoman La-Verna J. Fountain.

Sprayregen's concerns extend beyond the bathtub to the facility itself.

"It just boggles the mind why Columbia, supposedly an altruistic institution, would but a biohazard research center in Manhattan" he said. "I question the wisdom of placing, particularly after 9/11, a biohazard facility that sticks out like a sore thumb for any potential terrorists" in the city center.

"These are bio-safety rooms" Fountain said. "These are not whole buildings, just rooms."

No matter the result of this current suit, litigation about the Columbia expansion seems bound to continue. The suit filed yesterday is the fifth which Siegel has been involved in, and he sees the potential for at least one other suit. "If eminent domain is used, transferring private property to a private university, we will litigate that issue" he said.

The activist group Coalition to Preserve Community announced a protest for Monday at Columbia. Continued community resistance to the Manhattanville plans has been a driving force for the ongoing legal battle between landowners and the school, and both Sprayregen and Siegel cited community activists as a key factor in their decision to file suit.

"You need the community behind you on this" Siegel said. "Property owners have standing, but the community members were the heart and soul of this lawsuit."Visit www.stopcolumbia.org

I would write about NYC characters and it seems or should I say it "feels like" the New York Post has "stolen the theme" and taken out all the heart, soul and compassion.

I have been writing for so long "New York has character and characters". I am glad to be a New York character.

Leave it to the new york post sunday "page 666 glossy magazine" to destroy the beauty, heart, soul and compassion that truly define New York Characters and the quality and depth needed to appreciate them....yeah character and characters are required for the "real New York".

No surprise...

There is a definite trend for newspapers and magazine to "go shopping" on our blogs but we are not for profit so at least a thank you and or mention would be nice. I know some do that and we appreciate it.

two FYI

1) I have health insurance and it is outrageously expensive....scary and I know I am lucky to have health insurance.2) I know some of you love to see my photos and I promise more are coming this week if I can cram them on to this blog...if not I have made a new blog space...this is free and I am only doing it as long as it is free unless I get some patrons.

I watched the segment last night and now let us hope and pray this sicko is caught and removed from society so he can never murder and harm another woman including his own mother. Rosheda deeply moved me and she showed the scar on her face from the attack and the emotional scar with her grieving for her friend Tina Negron. Both women were courageous and one lived to be able to remember, to be a witness, to tell us the story. I was moved and I feel heart broken that yet another young beautiful woman dies in my neighborhood (-- meaning from Chelsea on down.)

I went to the 9th Precinct community meeting last year? I can't remember but it was before they moved back to their original home which was being renovated and I said no one should die the way Imette St. Guillien died! No one. I talked about the bar scene and I believe it is tied in to violence and women in particular have been victims of murder, rape and robbery. This happened at a supermarket, Tina's work place and Adrienne was in her workspace/apt. in the West Village.

All this is close to home for me. I am in the process of moving after 20 years and I can tell youin the AMW segment they say the East Village is filled with artists and it is not so. Add me to the exodus although I will be close by and I will continue to help my community and that means NYU you are not off the hook and you better stop with the phony public relations and take some action to respect and serve the community you have destroyed. I am so glad there was a huge and angry turn out to tell NYU what we feel although as usual John Sexton and company aka NYU will ignore and continue the expansion of their not for profit EMPIRE aka NYU also know as the no. 1 real estate magnate.

I would like to see a map of all the properties NYU owns and or leases everywhere here and globally. They won't show us that -- NYU won't even update their maps on the sides of the buildings they admit to occupying and the pink building on 2d and Bowery is just ONE example of buildings they "occupy" that they won't but their ubiquitous NYU flag -- sign of their Empire but we know what happens to all empires...they fall and NYU has already begun to fall in terms of popularity.

The neighborhood has x amount of long term community members, bankers, bar owners and huge population of temporary visitors aka college kids and tourists and the greedy developers can't tear down our historic neighborhood fast enough -- clear out and empty buildings fast enough to accommodate them all.

Attempting to silence us is like a murder and isn't murder the ultimate attempt to silence but sometimes even murder can't silence the truth.

There are all kinds of murder, there are all kinds of violence and people to some degree get away with it but there are also witnesses...people know the truth so on another level you are not getting away with it.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Go their website you can see the murderer's photo is posted right now. Please click on the image and read the special coverage by America's Most wanted on their website.

This article is from The New York Daily News and it has a shocking photo from the video tape of the cowardly murderer with his weapon.

Special note: Rosheda Andradas, you are a hero. You showed immense courage and bravery that would win you a Purple Heart if you were in Iraq. You are a mother, a working Mom and in this case even as I type this I feel it in my body and in my eyes tears that bravery and courage in the face of shocking violence that took a young woman's life and you took action. I wish you a speedy recovery and my heart goes out to your family to Tina's family and that all that love you both.

From what I was told right here on a comment on this blog Tina was very brave too and she dared to speak up and died courageously.

Please spread the word to watch America's most wanted to catch Tina Negron's murderer.Here are my photo's of the wanted poster and if you click on them you can see the information in Spanish and his photo.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/02/29/2008-02-29_woman_dead_after_keyfood_stabbing.htmlThis article has a photo of Tina Negron and she is so beautiful and also a photo of the murder weapon.Her brave friend is recovering with physical therapy.

This piece in bold seems to resonate with readers and for me as well when I contrast cowardly behavior that includes verbal abusive, threats, lying about the victim and blaming her, attempting to try and control her,....yes it resonates and contrast cowardly behavior with Tina and Rosheda's courage. Tina should be alive today and Rosheda unscathed but both exhibited immense courage and click on the New York Daily News article at the top and see the photo from the video and you can start to get an idea how courageous these women were.

I bet there are many women myself included that wish we had video and audio when approached by hostile men but the small bit of video you will see tonight is brutal, underscores these women' courage under a horrifying violent attack that started with verbal violence and I pray the murderer gets caught asap.

I really feel for the Tibetan people and although their rallies here shown on tv got out of hand seeing an NYPD officer punch a protestor was unacceptable.I hope the protestors can return to peaceful demonstrations and I do not want to see them punched by anybody. China's treatment of their people is unacceptable.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Just watched Mike Sheehan and my head is spinning so watch Fox 5 news at 10 to see the coverage but this man who had a restraining order against him but managed hold his baby son and step son hostage all day. The NYPD hostage negotiating team finally got him to give them up and himself . I didn't get all the details except it went on for along time and I think Mike Sheehan said it was the 35th anniversary of the creation of the hostage negotiation team division so they were called away from celebrating to this crisis and showed their true blue colors with a success.

Here are a bunch of us from different parts of NYC getting together to talk about over the top community crushing development. I have been under a lot of stress, duress and trauma and life changed for me in one year...this is a photo from when I was a little more rested and happy to be with fellow activists despite our struggle.

Please note St. Ann's is 120 East 12th Street and to see photos on this blog use the blog search engine.

Having endured the tear down of St. Ann's including the memory of the parishioners crying and praying on the street after being turned out along with the mystery of not being landmark protected although a historical site, the feeling that the USPS and NYU are above the law == example === the air rights sale and the fact the USPS never notified the State of NY as legally required when selling air space over a historical site, and the attitude they are federal and therefore not required as if the law does not apply to them, the mostly 7 day a week construction including long hours Mon-Friday all free passes from the City for NYU of course and the entire area being torn down and supersized as our historic area move towards replicating Wall Street where they left a few token blocks of historical "old" New York it is clear where the neighborhood or the lack of it for futuristic buildings that look like they belong in Dubai and clearly gentrification has become supersification...they just have not provided transportation....yet to move us out for college kids and the "new economy of wealth"...

I would like to report a murder, it was slow motion, one NYU mega dorm at a time, than the New School, Cooper Union, SVA, mega retail to replace our small businesses, than hotels, one sky piercing hotel after another for tourists and maybe for all the college kids parents as if the neighborhood is no longer a village for community but a place for temporary housing dorms, hotels and piedtieres because the dollar is weak and the euro is strong.I want to report a murder, it was one mega dorm at a time,

I want to report a murderthe murder of the East Village.

For documentation re: the illegal air sale visit these links:

remain in their neighborhoods...and this is city wide. http://www.gvshp.org/USPS.htmhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPS106.pdfhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPSreview6-25.pdfhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPSairletsept.pdfhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPSreview10-7.pdfhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPSreviewletters.pdfhttp://www.gvshp.org/documents/USPSreviewletters.pdf

Click on the image to see it larger and share this wanted poster which is on the supermarket door where she was murdered. I have not heard on the news her murderer has been caught and he should not be out in the streets so please help if you can.

You can type in Tina Negron in the search engine on my blog to read more on what I have written...

just go to my search engine and type in the word budget and read my many pieces on why we should not have budget cuts.

The mayor doesn't want to pass the budget mess to his predecessor...? Yes he is and a delipidated infrastructure with the tsunami of supersized development that in my opinon are why we have so many infrastructure problems...and more it to come...It is frightening....truly.

Safety first and no budget cuts -- how about bail outs....we have so many mega millionaires and billionaires in the city and so much development city wide it is hard to believe we do not have enough money for anything the city needs rather than more unwanted cuts.

www.developdontdestroy.org/go to Develop don't destroy and read the latest updates...I have great admiration these community members as well as those city wide fighting this tsunami of community crushing development.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/0626,letters,73676,7.htmlCarbon Copy this was the header for the letter of mine published in The Village Voicere: saving the old PS 64 building that is what Andrew Berman is talking about in his email posted below.

I am really proud I got the letter published way back when and to get the news today - Bravo!

There is a typo in the letter -- it should say NY Law not NYU lawand it was the letter of the week.

I have some wonderful news to report -- yesterday, New York State's highest court upheld a recent New York City rule banning "dorms-for-hire," effectively ending attempts by a developer to erect a 19-story building on the site of the now-landmarked P.S. 64 at 605 East 9th Street in the East Village. GVSHP had joined the East Village Community Coalition (EVCC), Councilmember Rosie Mendez, and many others in fighting hard to uphold the "dorm-for-hire" ban (including submitting amicus briefs in the court case), to block the proposed 19-story dorm, and to preserve the historic former P.S. 64, which had also served as the Charas/El Bohio Cultural Center.

This is a tremendous victory. Not only does it help protect this threatened East Village landmark, but it helps ensure that developers will not be able to abuse zoning regulations by getting the dorm "bulk bonus" the city offers, often allowing dormitories to be almost twice as large as residential buildings, if they have no actual school to occupy the supposed 'dorm.' Many developments GVSHP has fought, such as 159 Bleecker Street (the former Circle in the Square Theater site) and 81 East 3rd Street, got these dorm bonuses to build extra large buildings, but then when they were completed, there was no school to occupy the dorm. These projects never should have been allowed to be built in the first place.

In response to this, in 2005 the City finally put in place rules requiring developers have a 10-year lease from an accredited educational institution before they could get the dorm bonus; GVSHP supported this rule, although we fought for it to be even more restrictive, and we continue to push for elimination of the dorm bonus entirely.

After this rule was passed, the owner of the former P.S. 64 sought to build a 19-story "dorm-for-hire" on the site of this historic building, with no school in place to occupy it. The city denied the permit application on the basis of this rule and subsequently landmarked the building. The owner sued in court to overturn the "dorm-for-hire" ban and claimed that it should now be granted the building permit for the 19-story 'dorm' which he claimed he was wrongly denied before the landmark designation took place. A state court initially agreed, and overturned the ban.

However, in an appeal to the state's highest court, GVSHP, EVCC, and many others submitted amicus briefs in support of the ban, citing the terrible damage which would be done, not just at this site but citywide, if it were overturned. Fortunately the Court of Appeals agreed, and the prior ruling was overturned and the "dorm-for-hire" ban was upheld.

In an unrelated matter, yet another Stop-Work order has been issued to the Trump SoHo Condo-Hotel which GVSHP and the SoHo Alliance, among many others, have been fighting. In the wake of the fatal East Side crane collapse earlier this month, the City inspected the Trump SoHo crane and reportedly found cracks in the slab attaching the crane to the building and a non-working beacon light. Earlier this year there was a fatal accident at the site and a non-lethal accident involving glass windows from the building being shattered by loose construction equipment and raining down more than 20 stories to the street below. In both cases stop-work orders were issued and eventually lifted by the City. A decision in the legal challenge against the Trump SoHo Condo Hotel filed by the SoHo Alliance and supported by GVSHP is not expected until May.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Dear Readers: I sent this to New York Magazine in response to their article with images you must check out about Cooper Union's new buildings for our beloved neighborhood. Looks like a virtual unreality, a techno-bad dream. I gave the magazine permission to publish any of this they wanted but it is poetry and I am not waiting for anyone to publish it....that is what this blog is for!

re: your article on Cooper Union.... The good, the bad and the ugly....The header for your piece should read "The bad, the ugly, the neighborhood's unreality!"

What ever Cooper Union's high paid p.r. people tell you about the community loving "their new developments" is untrue. My guess is the majority of the community if asked would tell you they do not welcome the development.We do not like it. The fact they can tear down their Science building, supersize and lease it for office space for 99 years is ludicrous. If they need money than sell the property. Could you imagine if NYU and Cooper Union had to pay real estate taxes? Cooper Union claims they are not as bad as NYU and that is only because they can't be as bad...yet. The "new studio" looks like a fractured glass aquarium and it is next to Dubai on the Bowery that looks like a spaceship. None of these buildings fit in with the neighborhood unless you include the sea of NYU megadorms and the Cooper Union mega dorm that line 3rd Avenue but the attitude of the pro-development movement is we don't belong. I thought I lived in the East Village not a bad xerox of mid-town, Dubai wanna-be most of all our virtual unreality. Welcome to the "new" hideous New York.

p.s. For those who use to go to Madame X when it was very dark and there was a very provocative poem in the skylight -- that was my art installation poem which also ended with the term "virtual unreality". The poem is on my archive page www.suzannahbtroyartist.com and the bad muse that inspired it tried to suck the soul out of me...in this case the tsunami of futuristic dubai wannabe development is sucking the soul out of our neighborhood as if NYU mega dorming the East Village to death was not enough. The East Village is home to a massive amount of NYU mega dorms and various other forms of NYU student housing, a Cooper Union Mega dorm (as hideous), The New School Mega dorm, New York Law mega dorm, SVA (mini mega dorm). Welcome to the the bad reality make over of the East Village I have renamed NYU-Las Vegas ville where there are never too many bars and banks and you can party like a wannabe rock star! CU is just so elitist cool -- oh yeah...the statement they are making says it all. CU's message is the same as NYU's message to the community. The only thing they have not done is provide buses, NYU trolley's and trains to move us out. See you!

You can go to the search engine on this blog and type in Tina Negron to read more of my thoughts.This is the link to see the murderer's photo in color and please spread the word because he should not be free.

It seems nothing in the East Village is beyond "improvements" including the new stand.

This is Jerry and a friend. Jerry is a long term fixture and I can't imagine Astor Place with out him or a new stand.

I remember the day after Sept. 11 there was a very long line of very patient people here at the new stand waiting to buy The New York Times.

I will never forget that line. I did go above 14th Street which was blocked off and I had to show my driver's license to get back home.

I never imagined I would feel I had to leave my home and it was not a terrorist attack from abroad....very tired....just some memories, shock at the community crushing development and other thoughts....

Con Ed is as ubiquitous as NYU student housing, Con Ed here Con Ed everywhere and I am scared....Yes, bills are going up -- they are rising like the supersized condos, sky piercing hotels, mega dorms and evictions and the price of life to live here....are those invisible not welcome signs in your neighborhood signs or visible...?

Here is the beautiful "old" New York -- film anthology building and above it the sign "Live like a Rockefeller party like a rock star" to sell real estate equated with a false notion -- a fantasy because buying "this real estate" with provide you neither a life like a Rockefeller or a party life style like a rock star. Yes, NYU- mega dormed the East Village to death and we are dorminated, dominated with bars and banks -- NYU-Las Vegas ville but hardly Rockefeller or Rolling Stones life style.

(Click on the photo to see it larger.)

I have been so deeply traumatized by what I have had to endure I couldn't absorb this but www.curbed.com pointed it out and astute person who commented pointed out the Rockefeller's never lived like this -- studios and one bedroom. I am sure even the penthouse would not be up to their wealthy standards. VH1 shows us over and over that partying like a rock star is far from enviable but lonely. They are selling a fantasy they way Victoria Secrets sells lingerie. Advertising churns $$$$ on our discontent and they $ell you the idea if you buy "this" you will be happy!!!

A sign like this is targeted at "wannabes" that will never be Rockefellers and or be invited to parties that are as decadent as a rockstars. The constant focus on falls from grace comes with a message "it ain't all it is cracked up to be".

The bottom line is we are being pushed out and we are not welcome. The invisible "not welcome sign" manifests in so many ways. Some are not even invisible.

Here is Peter continuing on with his good cheer despite the on going stress of the constant threat of eviction.

Please come in and buy something or hire Peter to cater an event.

He needs help finding a home for this old gem or support to continue to stay there.

Help!!!!!!

130 St. Marks Place between 1rst and A 212-677-7597

go to the search engine on this block and type in Whole Earth Bakery and see the many postings....

This ground breaking healthy bakery and kitchen was in the neighborhood in the '70's as I recall and FilomenaSilvestri and her son Peter created this healthy resource and Filomena died at 94 years old knowing we fought for her dream, her small business and one an extension so did not have to die with her business thrown out on the street.

Shirley works for the Parks Dept. here at Tompkins Square Park and Shirley we appreciate you!

Shirley says her main inspiration are her kids and grand kids. She loves her work for the Parks Dept."New York is what is happening. If there is something to be made of yourself, here is where it's at."

Shirley we love you! Thanks to you and all the people that work so hard to keep Tompkins so beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hal is a face we all know and love. His band is www.kilifax.net and he is the best all around New Yorker with a magical flair for bike repairs at Bicycle Habitat at 244 Lafayette Street between Spring and Prince.

Jeff is a local NYC artist like me and he said "People need to support owner operated shops!

Your Con Ed bills go up to pay for this tsunami of over the top community crushing supersized development and aren't you glad so many mega dorms in the East Village are not for profit supersized student housing...? The bills also go up I am guessing because of all the lawsuits.

Houston Street and this has been going on for so long...today the streets are blocked off block after block but at least it doesn't resemble a terror attack ...

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Watching Nancy Grace and there it is -- the number one suspect -- the husband accuses the next door neighbor of stalking.Surprise? No surprise at all. So typical and another red light...one of many.

I am glad as many people as possible are watching this guy. I feel so sorry for the children.I worry for the next door neighbor's safety but at least a lot of people know and that may be better than a restraining order.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Diane Sawyer's segments on prostitution is heartbreaking and one of the first points she makes is the high statistics of violence these women endure and the also death. Surprise, men think they are disposable and Sawyer estimates the life expectancy is 35. Factors besides enormous violence, verbal abuse, humiliation are also homelessness, drug addiction and alcohol abuse. Many also suffered child abuse.

Based on the above paragraph it makes the law's focus prosecuting these women even more heart breaking. Some women interviewed said they did exit the industry after being arrested. Sawyer also reports the pimps are rarely prosecuted and the segment highlighted how abusive they are. The use fear, intimidation and violence and walk away unscathed.

Legalizing prostitution would be best but with careful monitoring and open available support services to exit the industry and also help with any of the abuse issues such as violence, homelessness, drugs and alcohol abuse. If it is legal than women who are confronted with violence can turn in theory to the police where they can't and in fact are more likely to be arrested than their pimps and clients.

If it is legalized than women and clients can be tested to make sure they do not have diseases. If it is legalized and kept out of the parks and streets than women and girls who are not sex workers may not be harassed by men looking for sex workers.

Sawyer's show does not cover male prostitution or under age prostitution.

One young woman, Skyler who studied opera sang as Diane Sawyer requested and her voice was beautiful. She suffered a trauma so terrible she cannot talk about it and since the interview she disappeared. Made me cry. Is she dead? Did she descend further in to despair and drugs? Her friend had the most enormous stabbing wound with over a hundred stitches and Sawyer said this woman did return to live with her grandmother. It was clear she had suffered so much on every level possible.

abc.com Sawyer says to go here and you can express your thoughts and there is info on resources.

After I posted this I thought more about the politics of sex, the double standards and the hypocrisy.I think of an ex President who used an intern and it was free exchange -- he played on her emotions giving her gifts but he became angry when she did not understand her role and that she was ultimately disposable. I don't care how liberated people think they are -- there is still shocking sexism and women have to deal with the hostility of this "knowing your place" and this "disposable" mentality. I made art when I was very young literally turning that concept of disposability around.

There is hypocrisy and it can also be found in women. A socialite that barters a very expensive dress or trip to some where for being a companion does not consider that sex work. Economic power, opportunities and ideologies seem out dated and dishonest.

There are women that marry men or date them with the clear understanding the money and the gifts are part of the deal and the same with divorcing these men. It is lucrative and more money than most of these women can earn in mainstream corp. America or for that matter in a life time. I have heard the rumor that women that marry men for money with the intention of making money attempt to get pregnant right away because a child means more money for the lucrative divorce settlements which are their ultimate goal and this does go both ways with men that marry women for their money and same gender relations. Sexual politics have economic issues that are part of most everyone's lives.

I wish Diane Sawyer uses her resources to track down Skyler if she is alive and help her to get off the street and return to her musical education, help her get employment and help with her drug addiction.

I am so looking forward our Spring season kickoff, seeing many of you again, and meeting new gardeners and kids! But the forecast is calling for snow on Saturday, and in any case, being bitterly cold and windy. So many of you have expressed interest in coming and volunteering, and a few of you have emailed me back with concerns about the weather...

So... after talking it over with some of the other gardeners, we've decided to postpone the event for 2 weeks. I hope that everyone who planned on coming out this weekend can make it on Saturday, April 12th from 2-5 instead. And maybe some of you who wanted to come this Saturday but couldn't can come that day instead!

If you have emailed/ spoken to me about this Saturday, please email me again, so I know no one is going to brave the cold and find a locked garden! We won't be doing egg painting, as that moment will have passed, but will dream up another fun art project to do with the kids, along with pizza garden seed and flower planting, an exciting composting workshop, and other gardening projects.

City of dreamerseven broken dreams have their beauty like a worn out facadebut they tell us it is about moneydreams in to dollarscalled losers if we can't cash in,it is about mega bucks this new city "make over" for college town kids and power brokers broke it downyeah they broke it downthe beauty of old New York City for their mega monolith sea of glittery mirrorsconcrete mega buildsriver of denial mega dormshalf empty hotelsand invisible "you are not welcome signs"

NYC is was a city of dreamers and possibilitiesbut we had dreamsdared to have dreamsstill dostill dodream

Used to be called Urban junglehinting at something wildbut now it is just a mega shopping mallfor college kids, tourists and a donald trump bad reality show

(1) The Coalition to Preserve Community will have a general meeting next Tuesday, March 25, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM in St. Mary's Church, 521 West 126th Street. We have a demonstration planned on Monday, March 31 at the gates of Columbia, 116th Street and Broadway, 4:30PM. (more info to follow)

(2) Below is an article published in the Columbia Spectator by Tom DeMott discussing the rezoning of 125thStreet with a critique which emphasizes problems with the arts initiative component and solutions to that, the general displacement aspects, and Columbia's relation to Harlem planning.

Invest in This: Harlem Not For SaleBy Tom DeMottPUBLISHED MARCH 12, 2008

So the Department of City Planning has a planning problem. It needs to come up with a zoning change that will allow the real-estate industry to score big on 125thStreet, Harlem, U.S.A. and simultaneously appear as benign, even artsy-driven,dialoguers.Illustration by Ramsey Scott

Creating openings for the boys who control New York City is the agency’s motivating impulse when defining successful development, no matter what kind of happy drivel they throw at us when they compose their treatises on urban removal.

It is obvious to anyone walking historic 125 that the heart and soul of the neighborhood is at stake. Even tourists and other non-natives glimpse this as they amble through, and they don’t have the collective memory—the familiarity with landmarks of resistance too numerous to conjure, the soapbox tradition of true democracy, loud notes boasting Aretha’s gospel and JB on the good foot every half block (real quality of life), the University on the Corner of Lenox Avenue, the bent rims, even the blue tape (7th) and the red tape (8th) and all that inventive, desperate, exploitative, creative street hustling that an Ivy League education can’t suss, even as it teaches its own to do the same with a fountain pen.

Unfortunately, the culture alive and well in decision-making entities large and small, “elected” and unelected, teaches us that raggedy ain’t too good, that Shange’s little ole Record Shack really needs to be replaced with some younger and commercially viable arts storefront initiative. True, I am biased. I’ve enjoyed buying my Mapfumo, Evora, Manguana, and Alpha Blondy there on my extended breaks from the nearby Manhattanville Post Office, where I received a pay check for decades, but that don’t mean I am narrowly defining a real arts initiative as one that only preserves brother Shange’s beautiful shop (or re-opens Bobby’s Happy Hut, etc.).

Yes, planners should find a way to keep these businesses here, but let’s start with something grander. Let’s get a real arts initiative—easily accomplished if will and imagination triumph over vicious, cynical, and desperate opportunism. Let’s bring Barry Harris’s Jazz Cultural Theater, and its all-arts equivalents, to Harlem. Let’s watch a new round of Barry’s girls and boys growing out of shoes and growing into Monk and Mysterioso, cultivating authentic generational connections, and letting souls run deep (and this ain’t some Bollinger-esque invocation of Harlem’s friggin’ “mystique,” my brothers and sisters). The housing project grounds where Thelonious walked alone on winter days, gesticulating to himself, stopping by his snowy woods and creating hisDavids, are fast disappearing. Pols who claim that the Coalition to Preserve Community exaggerates the bleak future of Grant and Manhattanville Houses and who pay no mind to MindyFullilove and Neil Smith are punks who lay down for the man. Yeah, it’s like that.

It’s like that because we are talking about the annihilation of a culture. City Planning and Blond Burden knocking it down, displacing residents and artists and businesses, taking away the light, and bringing us that CU “transparent” architecture which puts those inside not with us, but under glass—which is quite frankly where some of them should be on view, resting permanently.Look, if you’re deadening a culture, you barter in death. Arts initiative... hell, it is all about affordable space that’s open and available, not some pimper’s paradise for connected not-for-profits regranting space to the humble and non-threatening. It is all about not kicking out the people who have lived in Harlem and who make Harlem, Harlem.

Let’s find an organized way to help those young people, stepping out of the crowd to rhyme at the21st Annual West Harlem Coalition Anti-Gentrification Street Fair, to flow, mix, make poetry and music, yeah to rap. (And we ain’t talking about some handpicked, politically sanitized poets, even though my favorites were talking New York, talking gentrification, just folks who found other means to soapbox—after all, it’s the Harlems that supply and re-supply our country’s honest, and fun, language.) Let’s revive the Hispanic social clubs, at least some authentic version, so important to Harlem’s culture.

Let’s get Columbia U (hey, they are the architects for much of Harlem’s goings-on and have been for decades) to dump its current eminent-domain-violating eviction expansion plan. Many of us fought hard 20 years ago to shut down the Harlem-on-the-Hudson plan (luxury housing in the same spot as CU’s proposal, posing as mixed income, fostered by the Harlem Urban Development Corporation’s pols who used that project as a poverty pimp slush fund for years). Columbia gave it lip service, but was scoping out its own manifest destiny there, so it let “city planners” play in their sandbox for a bit. CU is linked to all zoning changes, including this arts shell game.

If you think I’m tougher than the rest on my 125—which ain’t mine or yours (or the real estate holders’, or Columbia’s, or Rangel’s) but America’s—imagine an interview with Lester Young on the subject of the New York City Planning Commission’s Arts Initiative. You couldn’t quote him ’cause he spread curses like tasty collard greens but the homogenized version might be, “Screw your uptown theme park and kill this bureaucratic gesture and its inevitable bland bureaucratic outcome right now.” If creativity flows from an area’s diverse and singular sensibility, the loss of that culture and those individuals stymies artistic advance. Harlem’s storied contribution is reduced to sad carny sketches of tourists passing by some second-rate local history museum with a unknowing curator from the “non-profit sector” whose prime interest is getting paid.

Jacob Lawrence enjoyed painting his community and knew its struggle was essential and wonderful. David Dinkins getting booed for supporting his employer’s land grab was participatory art. Where are the Columbia professors who are letting their trustees gangster us with zoning for dollars all over Harlem? Where the fuck are you? (That’s for Lester.)William Carlos Williams wrote: “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably every day/for lack/of what is found there.”

Better let our poets—who dance, paint, write, play, rap, talk, protest, ball, act, and sing—live and breathe here, along with the rest of us who need to be here too. And give those drummers in Marcus Garvey Park some amplification and cushions ’cause this is a live tradition of many, not a networking of the glass-domed elite. No sellout, no skulduggery, no flim-flam, no displacement, no bio-labs, no eminent domain, and no phony arts initiative. Harlem is not for sale. Harlem, no sevende. Invest in that!

The author is a member of the Columbia College class of 1980. He is a member of the Coalition to Preserve Community.

David Patterson fell and it was at a record setting pace. If when he was sworn in he had focused less on stand up comedy and also on implying he was going to be on higher moral ground than Spitzer than it might not have been such a fall. Patterson is on higher moral ground than Spitzer but the letter in The New York Post sums it with irony and humor. It does feel like the fall of Rome or we are watching the makings of another HBO special series and there are far more steamy scandals that we do not know about until we see it remade on HBO or our great grand kids will be watching the behind scenes "things" we never knew about. Anyway, yes the new governor will be left in place and the State and City of New York are in bad shape despite way back when the mayor at some point saying the city budget was more than okay and remember city council voted themselves a raise...???? Hello?

The city is heading for dire straits and it is wrong to be making budget cuts especially to school programs. In fact I wish we could get more organized help to get more kids off the streets after school and with some in depth one on one mentoring where volunteers sit with them and go over home work. These kids need one on one individual attention and if it means corporations open up their conference rooms after school and sit with these kids going over home work -- something to get the support they need. Cuts are the last thing NYC needs. It is sad to see the work fare program cut from the Parks dept if that happens. Does the city have to be bailed out like Bear Stearns? How many more tragedies that look like terrorist attacks but are infrastructure or construction related can the city take and handle with budget cuts? The NYPD has under 40,000 police policing 8 million plus people and their starting salary is not a recruitment tool but the opposite. I am one of many that still wants our firehouses closed REOPENED! We don't want hospitals closed with the population only increasing and the calamities too.

I am very upset about many things but this letter in the NYPost made me laugh. Women porn stars are carving out new grounds in terms of becoming entrepreneurs and in Jenna Jameson's case a media mogul.I do believe the women in the porn business have suffered child abuse and are further exploited in the industry until some break through to this new level of power where they become multi-faceted business women.

The letter made me laugh and it is rife with irony because a porn star like Ron Jeremy would at least have been honest and it feels to me David Patterson was not. He was not prepared to be thrust in to the limelight and the scrutiny that comes with it.

www.kidsmagicgarden.netChildren's Magical Garden de Carmen RubioStanton and Norfolk Street, L.E.S.F train to Delancey, 2 blocks northan L.E.S. community garden for all, especially kids, for over 25 years and counting. Envision it made permanent!

Dear Lovely Garden Supporters,

This is a reminder that this Saturday, March 22nd from 2-5 will be the garden's official kickoff to this year's growing season. We will be planting seeds (in containers) for our new pizza garden, learning about composting kitchen scraps and lasagna style gardening (as well as some um... soil moving in there for the enthusiastic) signing up new members, and also there will be hard boiled egg painting for the kids in honor of the Spring Equinox! The garden will provide several sets of water colors, and 2 dozen hard boiled eggs (organic, which I know even so might disappoint some of you caring vegans, but I thought it was better than plastic eggs with sugary jelly beans...) If anyone has more hardboiled eggs to share, please bring them, as kids often like painting more than 1.

I could also use volunteers in these areas: Flyering with me tomorrow and Friday in the neighborhood. Someone to volunteer being in charge of the kids painting station at the table (a very fun job) Multiple photographers who will please email/get me a disk after the event so that we can document it and put it up on our website.

Anyone who wants to bring/contribute juice, water, and healthy snacks is very welcome!Packets of seeds of all kinds are welcome, (organic preferred) with emphasis on vegetables and herbs that are yummy on pizza.

Come join us for an exciting day of growing veggies, flowers, kids, community, and celebrating the return of spring!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Just heartbreaking to think of her suffering and how she died. It was if she lived in a concentration camp and was tortured, starved and every horror that could be inflicted on her was by the people that were suppose to care for her.

Too horrible and again there had to be so many red light warning signals that were ignored. This case must be one of the worst in NYC's history.

There is something so sick about the anger...the rage that was directed at her as they blamed her and justified their viciousness in their warped minds.

In every religion, culture there is some kind of believe in karma or "what goes around comes around" but how can justice truly be served in this case? The hope that they will never be around children ever again or walk the streets. Joel Steinberg comes to mind and he is out in the public world which is a horrible thought.

AM New York's coverage of land marking in our neighborhood and that includes Webster Hall.

The landmark helps protect our history and our community. Every opportunity to tear down our historic buildings has opened up the door to developers to supersize on an old infrastructure and for mega dorms, sky piercing luxury condos and mirrored hotels that reflect a history destroyed and a community no longer welcome.

If NYU could have I am sure they would have bought Webster Hall and supersized it for yet another hideous mega dorm.

Gardeners are NYC's green heroes and they help communities city wide with their efforts. They help our spirits and our environment. We need as much green space as possible and places to go and sit and remember the beauty of nature.

This month's NYCCGC meeting will also be our official Annual meeting. We inviteall our members and the NYC community garden community at large to bring ideas, comments, criticism and ways to improve our Coalition.

We'll be discussing what we achieved in 2007 and what we hope to accomplish in 2008.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

I only get my info from the news but all the suspected rapists I mentioned on this blog have been apprehended.

So far I have not heard an updates on the capture of Tina Negron's murderer so I can only guess he has not been caught.

I am thinking hard on violence towards women and until abusers step over the lines that allow the NYPD to make arrest what can a woman do.

I have some ideas I am formulated based on warning signals like hostile verbal barrages, blaming the victim, trying to control her and anything associated with her, creating a hostile environment, etc. I want to organize them and share them with some people including some lawyers which will take me time but I also would like the laws and resources to grow so women can get support. I have some theories on how women's privacy is violated by abusers and how that be documented but for now it is conceptual...I am in think tank mode.

I have a link to saferide www.rightrides.org on my link page and I am thinking along these lines for women that are on the receiving end of hostile behavior and finding "safe rides"for women Fridays and Saturdays ( www.rightrides.org) but it doesn't mean a car ride home...more like "safe resources"...thinking...

Note: I told NYU and the 9th Precinct that NYU should contact and support rightrides or create a program like right rides because such a high number of young people are crammed in to the East Village with the bars and the need this as a resource and the police can work with them on this.

Just emailed Sheldon Silver asking for help with NYU re: community outreach resource centers and actually for all the mega dorms in the East Village so that includes Cooper Union, The New School, NY Law, and SVA.

you can see the latest crane tragedy documented but if you go to the blog site and type in the blog search engine the word crane and scroll d

Down you can see the taxi crushed from the crane incident by my home...soon to be ex-home.

if you type mercedes into the search engine of the blog neithermorenorless.blogspot.com you can see a mercedes cooking like a marshmallow by Tompkins Square Park because yet another man hole cover in the area had some serious potentially dangerous problems.

type in gas and you can see just one of many turn outs by the FDNY for gas leak problems.

In fact for one gas leak the NYPD had blocked off the entire street where La Mama Theatre is.Post 9-11 there has been a mad rush to supersize and we have had many problems and they just don't make the news.

In NYC be cautious where you walk and that includes your dogs because you may get the shock of your life or die. Do not park over man hole covers. Do not walk under scaffolding and yes cranes too.

A mega crane like that is pictured at the Cooper Union "fractured aquarium" building my name for the newest "dubai on bowery" to hit the East Village. I think I have a picture of the mega crane or part of it on this blog.

Woke up at 5am and have been rushing...writing, typos and frustration..This latest tragedy evokes 9-11 memories and also a feeling of despair because so many of us spoke up over and over about construction, infrastructure and this may be the worst construction tragedy but it is not the first but one of many tragedies above and below ground post 9-11 in this tsunami of over the top way too rapid development.

you can go to www.neithermorenorless.blogspot.comand type in crane in the blog search engine...than scroll down until you see the photos and coverage from the crane incident that crushed the taxi cab by me in the East Village.

You can also type in the word Mercedes in to the blog search engine for www.neithermorenorless.blogspot.com and see the mercedes toasting like a marshmallow over the man hole cover by Tompkins Square Park...

In response to op ed piece on Crane tragedy editoral piece: I could not get around the word count so I had to post in pieces on the www.nydailynews.com

Here are photos of another crane incident by me which was shocking but not one died by pure miracle...you can see the taxi cab crushed and people were injured.This is the East Village at 3rd Avenue by 13th Street.Even before this I attended the City Council Task Force Meeting on DOB, Dec 2006 and spoke up about the death toll from construction and injuries.It is also below ground infrastructure -- we have had deaths and injuries and I believe it is due to this tsunami of community crushing development which has been way too rapid, too many permits and free passes to bust through zoning, self certification of architects, you name it including 7 day a week free passes to work and the USPS to date never notified the State of NY they sold air space over a historic site....try getting a piece of mail delivered with out putting a stamp on it and this was allowed so NYU could set a world record pace tearing down a Church from 1847 to supersize our historic neighborhood for yet another hideous mega dorm because the mayor has his priorities and it is not affordable housing but NYU student housing.

What does this have to do with cranes -- everything. It is all part of the puzzle of real estate deals and construction mega speed builds getting pushed through too fast and in the Lower East Side where I live I see infrastructure problems --- water main breaks, man hole covers exploding, sink holes from sewage and my point is this crane horror is the worst ever but it is not the first and I saw this crane horror that crushed a cab but the people survived. I have called the press and asked them to please cover these stories and I can't get them down here.

I do have a link to NY1 on my blog of me standing with diverse group of community members talking in front of a "medium" size water main break at 2nd Avenue and 7th.http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=69978&search_result=1&stid=8

We have had to many people die post 9-11 live from construction related injuries, scaffolding and infrastructure and we need the "Safety first!!!!!!!" and accountability!!!!!!!

thanks,Suzannah B. Troywww.suzannahbtroy.blogspot.com

http:/www.chelseanow.com/cn_12/builtupcomplaintssome.htmlYou can see me in a picture here at the Dec. 2006 City Council Task Force Meeting on DOB and I talked about the death toll of construction and protestors against the Trump build at Spring Street before someone died there.

We have spoken up over and over and over calling for safety first and a slow down and accountability.I know I have.

You can see me and the paper wrongly states I am anti-development. I am not. I am anti-this tsunami of supersized community crushing development.

Dec. 2006 City Council Task Force meeting on DOB

WE talked about this!!!

I know I did and it was a packed house. I talked about how many construction workers had died at that point and I did bring in infrastructure and evictions as in the lack of affordable housing and of course the tear down of St. Ann's and infrastructure concerns...

why at a DOB city council task force meeting?

Because it is all related!!!!! You cannot hand out the many permits to build, supersize at world record paces and not have it impact people's safety and that is above and below ground -- INFRASTRUCTURE and it was clear this tsunami was for mega dorms, sky piercing luxury condos and hotels and yes mostly all on an old infrastructure.

I keep mentioning the pregnant women that spoke and her concerns about what they were inhaling from the construction sites and there are so many everywhere you go. And NYU got passes to work 7 days a week and as late as 9PM weekdays for the majority of their mega speed build and under the "not for profit" status -- what a racquet from not paying taxes to the long term noise pollution to pollution and in the context of the horrible tragedy yesterday -- more deaths, more injuries, more people traumatized and more homeless...more people grieving.

So tired of the talk and no action. No accountability and if the mayor says they don't have the money than slow it down until you have the money. Bear Stearns just got bailed out, how about NYC?

I guess we won't get action until someone rich and powerful is killed in yet another construction or infrastructure tragedy.

We have had two tragedies that looked like terrorist attacks, the infrastructure debacle by Grand Central and now this crane tragedy.

In the meantime I can't stop remembering that two amazing good souls Firemen Bobby Beddia and Joseph Graffagino are dead because they take down of the toxic waste dump Deutsche Bank could not have moved slower. If only NYU had wanted to build a mega dorm there they would be alive.

It is clear who the Mayor favors and it is just hard to believe these horrible tragedy is going to make a difference. Why should it. What is the death toll and number of injuries post 9-11 re: infrastructure and construction and include scaffolding when you answer my question? Post 9-11 our firehouses closed, lower the NYPD starting salary, and more budget cuts are too come. There only seems money for the support of mega builds and for little else.

The link no longer works but the letter I had published in The Wall Street Journal "Betrayal at Ground Zero" is as true now as it was than. When I watch the tragedy on television tonight and think of the infrastructure tragedy by Grand Central that looked like a terrorist attack also it just underscores my points in the letter.

Also note who was there front line like 9-11 and to date the mayor refuses to honor our rescue workers that died 9-11 with the simple respect due, their rank. It was also the largest loss of rescue workers in our City's and Nation's history and you would think this fact of history would be acknowledged at the site always.

We do not have the highest paid rescue workers but New York's front line is constantly featured running in to these large tragic events so you think they would be.

It looks like more budget cuts are to come, more economic casualties post 9-11, more casualties. Bear Stearns is getting "rescued". NYC is in need of rescuing.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

I can't tell you about my life right now and I want to to give you context but I will say I am watching more footage on television and it really has a 9-11 feeling. I also see people deeply traumatized.

The searching for survivors, the massive plume of smoke, prayers for all.

Again the front line is the same front line 9-11. I just can't believe there may be more cuts to our front line. I can't believe how many of us have asked for a slow down on way too many passes to build -- it all felt too fast, most supersizing on the city's old infrastructure and the death toll and injuries post 9-11 related to above ground -- the construction and scaffolding and below ground the infrastructure. When I got my infrastructure letter published in AM New York Jan. 11, 2007, I walked my letter over to Con Ed and I hand wrote them a note and asked if they could ask the mayor to slow down because of safety concerns.

The tsunami of development which brought a massive amount of construction and infrastructure expansion and all this supersizing in historic areas where the infrastructure is old has been so upsetting and I know I am one of many people that asked for a slow down. We wanted accountability and we wanted safety first. We watch another tragedy unfold and I do not feel this will be the last.

I am incredible sad tonight and very tired. This has a 9-11 feeling. I also was shocked in the changes -- the tsunami of over the top way too rapid development that came post 9-11. I thought I lived in the East Village and woke up to a bad xerox of midtown. I will always remember the parishioners crying and praying on the street after they were turned out of St. Ann's and again we endured so much pollution especially noise as did New Yorkers city wide and that was a concern discussed at the City Council Task force meeting on DOB, I spoke at and I remember a pregnant Mom speaking up concerned about what she was inhaling being next to one of these sites.

My heart goes out to every body and the families of the victims. My heart goes out to the rescue workers and I am wearing a 9-11 Memorial shirt for a fireman and I feel sadness because they went from heroes to zeroes. To date the mayor denies them their rank on the 9-11 memorial. Fire houses closed. More cuts are to come. The NYPD starting salary lowered. EMS salaries I have always heard are low and yet they continue to be our front line.

I am waiting mode for closure re: my home of 20 years and it is a deeply traumatic event which I can't write about right now but what I saw tonight on the television and what it evokes is even more so for people I saw interviewed for more families that are losing loved ones way too soon.

City of NY Owes Me an Apology for NYPD Detectives Committing Crimes in My Case

paypal.me/Suzannahartist feel free to donate to support my blog, hard work, courage; also you can scroll all the way down on your right is my archive; you can also see the miniature image of my portrait Mayor Bloomberg king of New York...

Since Oct 2012 the City of New York starting with NYPD Detectives from the first Precinct committed serious crimes after I was savagely assaulted 2nd degree assault, menacing by Delita Hooks, Dr Andrew Fagelman's violent lying attack receptionist/office manager who also lied during an open investigation, filed a false cross complaint and signed a letter most likely drafted by the idiot corrupt misogynist creep Joe Tacopina openly threatening me. All the corrupt NYPD and Internal Affairs NYPD that either directly broke laws or are guilty being a party to coercion, threatening me, covering up the crimes have been protected by the City of New York and Corp Counsel who bold face lies. I have set up my pay pal I have no idea if it works but I have spent a fortune attempting to get Justice while Bloomberg and de Blasio corp counsel continue to openly lie stating the NYPD and Internal Affairs acted with in their scope and they use Ron Kuby's letter to pretend I was not coerced and the NYPD did not lie in police reports as well as act on a misogynist hate crime threat again most likely Joe Tacopina who is I am right committed the misogynist hate crime threat during an open investigation.

I think she and everyone that lied are the type of people that blame Rape Victims https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh9TedhfthE all the women in the nurse pjs also lied and Dr Fagelman protected all of them and did not fire Delita Hooks as if he received assurances from the NYPD they would threaten me and coerce me and force me to drop charges against my will.

This was under mayor Bloomberg where being a critic of the mayor, team Bloomberg and the Oligarchs of NY means the NYPD are willing to break laws and they are confident they will be protected especially if they break laws involving a critic. I am waiting for a New Commission in to Police, Internal Affairs and DA Corruption plus the NYPD app tracker -- report crimes the NYPD won't let you including their own.

3) The NYPD and Internal Affairs all involved in lying-in police reports, protecting Delita Hooks pile up of crimes from Dr Andrew Fagelman's to the First Precinct to Internal Affairs to 1 Police Plaza.

Do you think the NYPD involved in my case are crazy violent liars? I do.

4) Michael Rawson obsessed with me for 6 years now and last night through this am has been threatening me with harassment via YouTube unless I remove YouTubes which are not mine. He thinks I have these 2 YouTube channels that are mine which aren't but Rawson doesn't seem to be in touch with reality. Like Barbara Ricci he lies about me but in his case it is his Facebook page dedicated to ranting about me -- one example of Michael Rawson lying is he states I did what I did my protest because of political ambitions but in fact I did it for 79 year old Eric Youngquist, a Korean War Veteran who was severely handicapped and has since passed away in a Hospice of Cancer! He is a fraud and a liar -- that is what he calls me but that is him describing himself since he would call the NYPD and demand they ticket the Veterans -- he claims are fire hazards etc but my issues was stop harassing the Veterans while you are running an illegal parking valet service in the loading and unloading zone and because the Mercer Hotel is rich and I am guessing employees retired NYPD as well the precinct was willing to do "selective policing" looking the other way -- even walking past a fake NYPD parking placard I found to harass poor Eric. Rawson -- a nut case? is not a Veteran but he says his brother is. I would like to ask his brother under oath about his stance -- if it is the same as the NYPD Veterans of the First Precinct who refused to pick on fellow Veterans and ticket them.

Below you can find a link to 2012 just before the corrupt lying criminal NYPD fixed it for Dr Andrew Fagelman so he did not have to fire his violent lying receptionist/office manager Delita Hooks -- they corrupt Detectives rushed to seal their crimes with her's and surprise Det Tommy Moran of community affairs and his parter the creepy PO Eugene Schatz who is the first NYPD officer I ever reported to Internal Affairs is the face book friends of the NYPD detectives Det John Vergona and Det Andy Dwyer -- I just discovered that piece of evidence a year ago and reported it to Internal Affairs -- they were all party to coercion but the US Attorney has limited his scope of NYPD corruption just to the Hasidic Community.

The Mercer Hotel is up the street from Dr Andrew Fagelman -- it was what Preet Bharara the US Attorney calls Call a cop or I call 1800NYPD IA Fix it.

5) Joe Tacopina crazy violent liar? Let's ask Bernie Kerik his opinion but I can tell you yes I think so and I think Joe and a partner in crime committed witness tampering Sunday dinner time after I was assaulted Monday Oct. 1, 2012 -- it was a misogynist hate crime and he threatened to bury me and destroy me if I take any action and he called me a confrontative cunt. I forwarded to Det John Vergona who repeatedly refused to meet me -- never discussed the threats but in fact joined in.

If Joe Tacopina did infact do that and write Delita Hooks letter to her NYPD fixer openly threatening me and warning me to not come back again or else -- same tone similar threat minus calling me cunt than he should be disbarred.

Det John Vergona was going to false arrest me Tuesday Oct 16, 2012 but than decided he could only false arrest the Jew me on the Sabbath -- I agreed twice to false arrest. He lied and lied in police reports and protected a pile up of crimes including his own as well as whomever the YouTube cunt calling lawyer that threatened me my guess Joe Tacopina and the 2nd account Tara, or George Vomit, or Chad Venus Fly Trap Seigel and when I alerted to the 2 cowardly lawyer accounts of their wrong doing they promptly deleted their accounts.

It is criminal to threaten a victim of a violent crime.

Det John Vergona acted on the threats turning the tables on me.

George Vomit used to follow me on twitter and I blocked him.

Joe Tacopina tried to follow me on twitter and I blocked him.

Here is Joe Tacopina's secretary telling me the NYPD Rape Cops are going to get off and this is before the Jury came to a decision. I alerted all the newspapers because it is shocking.

She admitted she knew who I was and watched my YouTubes.

My guess she has used sock puppet accounts to communicate with me as well as others associated with Joe?

Dr Andrew Fagelman and his staff that were involved in lying about what happened as well as the perp -- violent liar Delita Hooks, the NYPD etc everyone involved in the violence and lies = criminal. They treated me like a Jew in the early stages of Nazi Germany.

Today is Oct 22, 2016 I asked the liar Michael Rawson -- because he has lied about me to stop contacting me. The other gang from Soho and Joe Tacopina and gang he he ended broke the law should be behind bars but I am pursuing Justice and I also came up with the concept of the NYPD app tracker.

I tweeted my concept to Loretta Lynch, DOJ and the FBI and I happy to tell you they adopted one small aspect and that is they are going to roll out a National Data Base on Police and excessive violence complaints.

Mike Bloomberg must see YouTubes by Suzannahartist

for non-computer savvy people most your cursor over the links and click!
May 4, 2009 I said do not believe what the press
is telling you Mike Bloomberg may not win because of
voter anger! I was so right on. May 4, 2009!!!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo8G6ClkP48

Sept. 05, 2010 Mike Bloomberg does not want to
give up 63 add 6300 emails to Haggerty! Why hasn’t the DA served subpoena’s for all of Mike and his deputy mayors emails with Haggerty’s name in them? The technology king is
being brought down by emails! Amazing they haven't forced
him to turned over his emails!
PLEASE CHECK OUT SUZANNAHARTIST AND SUBSCRIBE!!!!!! https://www.youtube.com/user/Suzannahartist
Below king Mike with the help of his minion prevent the people of NY from voting on term limits 2 years in a row and extend term limits!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Suzannahartist#p/a/u/1/SRCFeXZkF00

Scroll down to the bottom, look to your right, Alfredo and I standing on a speed bump I got for Anna Silver School. I was told I would never get that speed bump. Reminder, when your community board does nothing, you can do something. See my portrait turned political poster lampooning Mike Bloomberg that no newspaper would cover!

Below -- update Google removed age restrictions on all my YouTubes but it took a long time and a lot lot of work and emails.

This makes 2 -- the 1st video age restricted below. So angry and disgusted so if anyone organizing a Class Action Law Suit against Google YouTube count me in.

GoogleE-Burka by Louis Flores Google YouTube discriminated against me because of the size of my breasts in my shirt as I expose SAIC was sued by Gerald Denault and Denault won which is big news and good for the People of NYC as SAIC officials have managed to avoid their role in the CityTime mega scam NYC gov.

The video got an adult rating. Louis Flores created the term E-Burka and defends the right for my video to not be given a adult warning!